Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the lead vocalist in the rock/nu metal band Linkin Park, and was previously associated with the band Grey Daze, among others. He has released five studio albums with Linkin Park and one studio album with his side project Dead by Sunrise . Bennington's first release with Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory, was a commercial success, and he has released several major albums and singles since then. He has worked with Jay-Z, Jonathan Davis, Young Buck, Slash, Julien-K, Busta Rhymes, and Aaron Lewisneeded. In 2007, Bennington was placed at 46th on Hit Paraders list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists". Biography Early years Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona., and this is where he first met Christy Morris. He took interest in music at a young age, citing Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as early inspirations. Bennington's parents separated in the late 1980s. He later struggled with cocaine and methamphetamine addictions. Bennington eventually overcame his drug addiction, and would go on to denounce drug use in future interviews. He worked at a Burger King restaurant before starting his career as a professional musician. Before joining Linkin Park, Bennington was a vocalist in Grey Daze, a post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. He left Grey Daze in 1998, but struggled to find another band to play in. After nearly quitting his musical career altogether, Jeff Blue, then the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered Bennington an audition with the future members of Linkin Park. Bennington quit his day job, and took his family to California, where he had a successful audition with Linkin Park, who were then called "Xero". Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the band’s other vocalist, made significant progress together, but failed to find a record deal. After facing numerous rejections, Jeff Blue, now a vice president of A&R at Warner Bros., intervened again to help the band sign with Warner Bros. Records. Linkin Park On October 24, 2000 Linkin Park released their debut album through Warner Bros. Records. Bennington and Shinoda wrote the lyrics to Hybrid Theory based on some early material. Hybrid Theory was released in the United States on October 24, 2000 following the debut of "One Step Closer" on the radio. It entered the U.S. Billboard 200 charts at #16 in late 2000, and was certified gold by the RIAA five weeks after its release. In 2001, Hybrid Theory sold 4.8 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling album of the year, and it was estimated that the album continued selling 100, 000 copies per week in early 2002. Throughout the following years, the album continued to sell at a fast pace and was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2005 for selling 10 million copies in the U.S.13 It has sold 29 million copies worldwide as of 2009, which makes it the band's best-selling album and the best-selling debut album of the 21st century. The follow up to Hybrid Theory would ultimately become Meteora. The band began to work on new material amidst their saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio. The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks. Meteora featured a mixture of the band's previous nu metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments. Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition, going to #1 in the US and UK, and #2 in Australia. Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed.Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound.Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band’s third studio album, entitled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album’s title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes. Minutes to Midnight sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts. In an interview with Q101's Kevin Manno at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, Bennington stated Linkin Park will be returning to the studio sometime in November to begin recording for their next album. This album, A Thousand Suns, was released in September 2010. Seen by many as a radical departure from the nu metal genre the band became known for, much of the album has an experimental quality to it. Personal Life After the arrival of his first child in 2002, Bennington took a short hiatus from Linkin Park in order to spend time with his wife and son. Chester is currently married to Talinda Bentley, a former Playboy model. Chester has two children with Elka Brand, Jamie M. born May 12, 1996 and Isaiah D. born November 1998 and adopted by Chester in 2006. He has one child with Samantha, Draven Sebastian born April 19, 2002 and once child with Talinda, Tyler Lee born March 16, 2006. Health Despite having prodigious success in the early 2000s, Bennington has had medical issues outside of the limelight. He suffered a severe bite from a recluse spider while touring with the OzzFest in 2001. Bennington was plagued with poor health during the making of Meteora, and struggled to attend some of the album’s recording sessions. He fell ill during the summer of 2003, and eventually underwent surgery. Bennington sustained a wrist injury in October 2007 while attempting to jump off a platform during a show in Melbourne, Australia. Despite the injury, he continued to perform, and went to the emergency room after the show. Recently, he also sustained a back injury while slipping a plate in his back while playing with his kids. His doctor has confirmed that he is not able to jump off platforms during shows. Solo work Chester Bennington teamed up with original Orgy guitarists Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh, who perform together as Julien-K, for a solo project. Chester's band is called Dead By Sunrise, formerly known as Snow White Tan. Dead By Sunrise released their debut album in 2009. The album is called Out of Ashes. "Both bands are the same. The one where Chester sings and writes is Dead By Sunrise, but when I sing, and Amir and I are the primary writers, it becomes Julien-K and it's more electro and much darker...Julien-K and Dead by Sunrise are basically a creative collective, we're sort of a Warhol-style factory in that sense," explains Ryan Shuck. "Dead by Sunrise is Chester's Julien-K if that makes any sense." He has also played minor roles in the movies Crank and Crank: High Voltage and sang for a couple of gigs with "Camp Freddy". Bennington have also appeared in the seventh installment of the 'Saw' in which he played 'Evan' a racist, his association with the film wasn't revealed until the debut of the teaser trailer which began appearing online July 23rd. Work with Other Artists Category:Linkin Park members